Monday, January 18, 2016

This will be the last post on this version of the TR blog. The new one is here. This is the last step in a long journey to unify all of our sites, which were created at disparate times without a particular unifying theme. This new blog will collect the work we were doing on the blog, at TradReviews, and at the Restoration Reader into one single feed. No more other websites. Everything is at TrueRestoration.org.

Since this site has been around a relatively long time in internet terms, we will keep the most linked articles available here so that long-linked-to posts don't get broken. However, there will be no new posts here, ever. It will also be a month or so before all the previous posts from blogspot are properly imported to our new blog. But by March 1st you should be able to find all the content that was here over there.

As a final note - you will start to see more writing activity. Another challenge apart from creating a cohesive website was making sure we had a cohesive team, which was a challenge considering our company works across three continents. But we had an excellent Annual Meeting and are ready to move forward This also means I will have more time to write, and hope to share more of the Restoration with you.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Due to medical advice, Bishop Sanborn will be postponing his trip to Europe until late Spring, we hope. The Bishop assures everyone that it is nothing life-threatening, simply a precaution due to some recent illness. While we at TR regret this turn of events, for any number of reasons, we will be carrying on with our annual meeting, across the three cities delineated in this itinerary, and hope to grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine with you, as circumstances may permit. We know that God allows everything for His reasons. Have a joyous Christmastide.The death of H.E. Robert McKenna, OP, delayed the publishing of this itinerary. Our thoughts and prayers are with him, and we are grateful for his many years of service to Our Lord.

Bishop Donald Sanborn will be visiting Europe in about 10 days' time, and the landscape is far different from that first time that we were with him to give a conference in London. There is a serious and growing mission chapel in that old city, which now gives many English Catholics two non-una-cum Masses per month. For those in Europe, this is a great chance to meet a Catholic bishop.

Here is the Bishop's public itinerary for December 26 2015 - January 3 2016:

Thursday, December 3, 2015

"This would be a great target to hit." It was Tuesday, and I closed my eyes and pictured an explosion ripping through the Eurostar that was taking me from Paris to London. Done at the right time, with the proper amount of explosives, such an act could destroy or severely cripple the Chunnel, kill hundreds of travelers of dozens of nationalities, and chill rail travel for months, if not years. I opened my eyes again, and gazed at the lovely French countryside.

I'm not morbid by nature, but wars, and rumors of wars, have been on my mind since November 13th. One of my rental properties is across the street from one of the restaurants that was hit in Paris. It remains closed, and has an unending group of people who gather and leave candles. I've taken over 30 guests through the years to another of the restaurants that was shot up. Turkey is provoking Russia. Russia is understandably not going to let things slide. And for greater context, the Roman Catholic Church's liturgical year ended two weeks ago on the Last Sunday after Pentecost. For those unfamiliar with the Gospel for that Sunday, it reads as follows:

"(At that time,) Jesus said to His disciples: "When you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, standing in the holy place—let him who reads understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything from his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. But woe to those who are with child, or have infants at the breast in those days! But pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor will be. And unless those days had been shortened, no living creature would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.

Then if anyone say to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or, 'There He is,' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise, and will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told it to you beforehand. If therefore they say to you, 'Behold, He is in the desert,' do not go forth: 'Behold, He is in the inner chambers,' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes forth from the east and shines even to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then will all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty. And He will send forth His angels with a trumpet and a great sound, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch is now tender, and the leaves break forth, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door. Amen I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things have been accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." (St. Matt. XXIV: xv-xxxv)

Christ is foretelling of the destruction that would (and did), in a short time, befall Jerusalem, but it is a type of what will come at the end of time. And in a year that has brought so much darkness, we can't help but insert ourselves into Our Lord's narrative and wonder if we will flee to the mountains, for surely we are besieged on all sides by false Christs.

But here at True Restoration we don't engage in millenarianism, but in making the best of a dark age, and part of that is honestly examining what has brought us to this pass.
The answer is as simple as it is old: We have forgotten Our Lord and have made our own golden calves to take His place. Our answers and remedies fall short because they always fail to include Him.

I watched Marine Le Pen thunder away in the European Parliament last month, giving perhaps her best speech ever, but the Front National's religion is France, and since France has forgotten and banished God since 1789, the religion of the FN is, at best, a natural religion, which can easily be turned to darker purposes.

For those who don't buy into that old-time Nationalist religion, the new and trendy religion of climate change is currently having its Vatican II in Paris. Decrees, documents, and much lamenting will be heard, and "climate deniers" will be branded for the crazies they are alleged to be. "Science has spoken," we will be told.

London is very festive in December. Streets everywhere are strung with lights, and everyone has smiles on their faces. But if we push aside the commercials, enter into the purple of Advent, and think on the reason for the season, we will see, as those kings of old once did, the star over Bethlehem as our true hope, and consolation.

Dom Gueranger, in his masterpiece The Liturgical Year, gives us the coda that leads us into Advent:

"The Liturgy at this close of the year continually alludes to the end of the world. The earth seems to be sinking away, down into some deep abyss; but it is only that it may shake off the wicked from its surface, and then it will come up blooming in light and love. After the divine realities of the year of grace, we ought to be capable of feeling a thrill of admiration at the mysterious, yet, at the same time, the strong and sweet ways of eternal wisdom."

Saturday, October 3, 2015

We recently returned to the air from our third season break of this year with a post about the music that is playing for the SSPX. Fr. Cekada joined Stephen Heiner for a discussion about the new era that is dawning for them.

Separately we took a survey among those who have purchased our episodes but have not yet become members and had some Platinum Annual memberships as prizes. Here were some of the quotes we got:

I love it. Started listening while in Novus Ordo seminary. Helped realize I had to get out. I feel my soul is not in danger listening to your productions. I can't really say that about anything else. I left the Novus Ordo May and joined a Traditional Catholic Church in large part because of what I had learned at TR. I am not a sedevacantist but I am not opposed to its possibility either. Thank you for presenting your evidence. We all are in this together. RR helped to solidify my decision to leave the Novus Ordo completely for the true Roman Catholic faith, and still nourishes my faith through shows about doctrine, spirituality, the Catholic Home, and post V2 shows.I've found your programs very informative and I've heard a lot of quotations from books that I don't have access to. Sermons given by sedevacantist clergy gave me priceless advice regarding my spiritual life and provided numerous ideas on how to incorporate the Catholic lifestyle into my family. Truly Catholic. Charitable towards others of differing opinions. Depth of program subject matter. Quality production. Knowledgeable guests.

If you understand that part of our mission at TR is undermining and exposing the Novus Ordo religion for the fraud that it is, you can imagine how gratifying it is to find out that people have left both their "parishes" and one of the Novus Ordo seminaries to embrace the true and integral Catholic Faith in part because of our work. This vindicates all the personal and professional challenges we have to battle through to bring you Restoration Radio, and we are grateful for our member-supported (and as a result long-term financial viable) apostolate and ask for your continued prayers that it may succeed in its mission. We are never satisfied and intend to continue to improve sound quality, upgrade user interface and experience, and innovate in show topics and content.

The winners of the Platinum Annual Memberships will be notified next week. Season 4 ends after the 2nd Sunday of Advent. Season 5 begins in 2016.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

That used to be a rhetorical question, much
like “Is the sky blue?” or “Is grass green?” but ever since the Second Vatican
Council wound up in 1965, it has been increasingly difficult for the faithful
to discern the Catholicity of the Church hierarchy. Not to worry: our host and
roving reporter Stephen Heiner has once again enlisted the help of Bishop
Donald Sanborn and Father Anthony Cekada to unmask Conciliar duplicity, and to
demonstrate the logical and uniquely tenable position of Sedevacantism in the
face of the debacle that is Vatican II.

True Restoration Media has just released a
DVD, Sedevacantism: A Primer (NTSC
format, $29.99), which includes an excellent conference by Bp. Sanborn in
December 2013 on “The Fundamental Principles and Common Objections”, and a more
conversational video with Fr. Cekada from 2011 entitled “Sedevacantism: How to
tell Aunt Helen”. I had to chuckle at the second video’s title, because I actually
had an Aunt Helen, and she would have been in dire need of a DVD like this!

Imagine St. Thomas Aquinas sitting beside the
few conservative Cardinals at the Council, aghast and beside himself with
having to put up with all the Modernist gobbledygook that the Liberals were
promulgating! That’s kind of the impression I got from Bp. Sanborn’s exposé. He
dissects the main problems, leads us through to the choices we are faced with,
and unerringly presents the only logical position. A perfect syllogism. He asks
us if the religion (the ensemble of doctrines, disciplines and liturgical
practices) of Vatican II is Roman Catholicism or not. His Excellency shows that
ecumenism, religious liberty, a new conception of the Church, collegiality, and
relativism of truth were the most objectionable doctrines that came from the
Council, to the extent that the pre-1958 Church and the Church of today could
hardly be recognized as the same religion. He demonstrates that it is
impossible that the authority of the Catholic Church can promulgate false
doctrine, evil discipline and false liturgical practices, and therefore if
Vatican II represents a substantial change to the Catholic Faith, it cannot
have come from the authority of the Church. Sedevacantism is the only logical
conclusion.

Bp. Sanborn explores three positions of
reaction to Vatican II, answers the seven main objections to the Sedevacantist
position, and in the remaining 50 minutes takes questions from those attending
the conference.

The video itself was shot in less than
perfect conditions. Poor lighting made the image a bit grainy and also induced
the photographer to periodically adjust the focus. Although His Excellency’s
image was sometimes blurred, his train of thought was crystal clear, making
this presentation a must-see.

Lean back in your La-Z-Boy with the second
video by Fr. Cekada, as Stephen asks Father how he came to be a Sedevacantist.
Here we have a personal journey which parallels that of many today, starting
with a disenchantment with the new Mass and the blatant errors of doctrine,
discipline and worship that came out of Vatican II. Although Fr. Cekada
describes himself in the sixties as a neo-con, wanderer Catholic, he was all too ready to
stick with the Pope with the assurance that everything would be all right. He
came to realize, however, that the problem with Vatican II was not one of
interpretation: it was everything! His search led him to the inevitable
conclusion that the changes were evil, and since evil cannot come from the
authority of the Church, therefore those in the Church hierarchy must not have
the authority of the Church.

Fr. Cekada goes on to examine the arguments
of the Recognize and Resist traditionalists, and shows how theirs is not a
Catholic position. He notes that people don’t want to discuss the possibility
of Sedevacantism, afraid of the consequences, looking over into the abyss.
Traditionalists are already all Sedevacantists, except they haven’t figured it
out yet, according to Father. People will have to do the hard work; look it up
and investigate.These are two very convincing video presentations,
available for purchase on one DVD here.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Since
being canonized by Pius XII in 1947, Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort has been
recognized almost universally as an unimpeachable teacher of Marian
spirituality, and his writings have guided thousands to union with Jesus Christ
through the auspices of His Blessed Mother. Few know, however, that this
unofficial “Doctor of the Blessed Virgin Mary” was almost consigned to
obscurity during the French Revolution. Fearing destruction by those hostile to
the Church, his followers hid his works in trunks underground until conditions
became favourable for their disclosure. Fortunately, manuscripts that had been
buried were recovered in 1842, and have seen innumerable editions and
translations since that time.

St.
Louis-Marie is known primarily for True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary
(TD), and its summary, The Secret of Mary (SM). Other works such as Love
of Eternal Wisdom (LEW), Friends of the Cross (FC), and The
Admirable Secret of the Rosary (ASR) are less well known. In point of fact,
it is LEW that is the synthesis of his doctrine and the key to unlocking the
treasures of his thought. It discusses at length Jesus, Eternal Wisdom; and
gives an excellent Gospel summary, highlights the importance of the Passion and
the Cross, and reveals the four major ways leading to union with Our Saviour. It
is Christocentric and incarnational, placing him solidly as the last great
figure in the French School of spirituality, founded by Cardinal de Bérulle and
further developed by Condren, Olier, Boudon, and St. Jean Eudes.

In TD,
Montfort drew significantly on classical Marian authors as well as those in the
French School. He details the importance of this devotion to Our Lord through
His Blessed Mother, and indicates how to develop it. Curiously, there is no
formula of consecration in TD, but only in LEW, although Montfort indicates how
to prepare for the consecration in TD.

Montfort
was unable to recommend his own works to those preparing for consecration, as
they had not been published during his lifetime. He gives readings from Holy
Scripture and the Imitation of Christ to aid retreatants during their thirty-three
days of preparation.

Fr.Libietis
has done his readers a great service in preparing Consecration to Mary
by assembling the references recommended by Montfort, plus readings from TD, SM,
LEW, FC, ASR in addition to other litanies, prayers and meditational materials in
a single volume. There are guides to the meditations throughout the book, which
are especially helpful to those not familiar with making a spiritual retreat in
daily life. Readers will note that Fr.
Libietis has extended the preparation to five weeks (35 days) to make the
retreat period more manageable. This is an indispensable manual for those making the
consecration for the first time, as well as those making its annual renewal.
Instead of having to resort to flipping through several volumes to cover the
exercises for a given day, the devotee has everything under one cover to really
live this Holy Slavery of Love.

I feel the book
could be improved by the addition of a table showing start dates relative to
Marian feasts, for example to start on November 5th if you want to make your
consecration on December 8th, and so on. Another improvement I would suggest
would be the addition of a comprehensive index to quickly refer back to topics
and helps for applying the consecration in daily life.

I have made use
of several works in French and in English since 1998 on making the consecration, but in spite of their various strengths, all of them fell short of this
volume by Fr. Libietis. It is a excellent digest of the writings of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, and has been my guide and reference for over ten
years to enhance my devotion to Our Blessed Mother.True Restoration
Press has obtained a limited number of copies of this book for the convenience of
our customers, which may be ordered here.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

"That's the language of the revolution," I said calmly, putting my knife down.

"What are you talking about?" my would-be antagonist sputtered.

"That, using terms like 'rights.' That's the language of the French Revolution, the UN, and the EU. We don't have any 'rights' as Catholics or as humans. We have responsibilities. First, to God, then to our family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, etc. There's no catechism that instructs me on any 'rights' I am born with as a Christian, pre or post Baptism."

And that's because once we accept that such a thing as "rights" exist, we are also pocket-conceding that such a thing can be given or taken away, by whatever authority recognizes (or doesn't) said rights.

Think about the sacred phrase used by all those millions who "march for life" annually in Washington D.C., oblivious to the fact that not only was their battle lost a long time ago, but by continuing to pursue a legislative path to a "fix" for abortion in America while using the language of "rights" the war was over before the first baby disappeared down a suction tube.

We have no "rights," not even a right to life.
We were given an incredible gift by our Creator: life, beautiful life. We have a short time here on earth to give an account of how we have known, loved, and served him so we can be happy with him forever in heaven. That is hardly some "right" enumerated by the so-called philosophes. It's a grave responsibility.

When we stop using their language - when we start redefining the terms of our engagement to tell our story (like a Rosary procession, perhaps, instead of a "march") we might make some real progress.
Until such time as we do, the March for Life, just like the Charlie Hebdo march in Paris, will remain an exercise in "feel-good" activism, the sort of sugary coat that will burn away at the first heat of trial.